Upon Vestia: Chapter Four

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As they made it back to Vestia Heny would of dozed off in her chair, semi curled up. Vestia greeted them but seem slightly annoyed about something.

Starr looked up at the spike in power and the engines starting. She closed her eyes, reverting to her natural form to draw on her powers more as she made a shield to cover Vestia from the high arcana.

Merith, please, Syren would not want this, you must calm yourself She thought, trying to send the message as Kay had been helping to teach her. We have to find the culprit, the foxes that were here She didn't know if it would work or not, but she had to try

Merith was no longer in a listening mood. Those who had dared to stay even after he released his weapon began to run, screaming in terror at the man's presence. He made an unearthly growl...

Heny stood there trembling, watching the horror unfold before her. She felt her stomach knot as Corvus kept his shield sround her following wherever she went to keep close to Merith. She knew he was too charge for her to aafetly asorb his engergy.

Quinn The Fox wrote:Merith was no longer in a listening mood. Those who had dared to stay even after he released his weapon began to run, screaming in terror at the man's presence. He made an unearthly growl...

Starr could feel him and that he was ignoring her. She growled and sent a lash of power at him to gain his attention Do you want the innocent to suffer, or do you want the guilty to suffer?.

Starr's forceful demeanor to get his attention only angered him more. If she attempted to keep contact with him she'd suddenly feel a digging at her mind, a stabbing pain as he attacked the link they had together. The person that spoke back was Merith, but the way he sounded, wasn't too stable.

You really think you have the authority to speak to me?...

As Vestia began to reach farther and farther away, suddenly there'd be a large wave of energy emit from the planet, and a few seconds later, the silence of the space vacuum would muffle the horrendous explosion to come. In one sweep a large gash from the planet's north to South Pole as the giant rock was wrenched apart by an incredible unseen force. Within the few seconds afterwards, the planet's moons exploded as well. In that instant, billions of souls left mortality, lost. The civilization fell. Organic creatures not fit for the habitat of open space fried immediately as the atmosphere disappeared and the star's radiation contacted their bodies. Bots and technology not fit for space immediately froze from the cold and flickered out, dying as the tiny debris battered their shells.

Explosion, after explosion, after explosion, the planet was torn asunder into millions and billions of rocks and asteroids, the buildings becomes ethereal abandoned monuments of their former glory within a few minutes. Vestia would shake from the pure force emanating from the destruction.

Starr cried out and shut down the link to stop the backwash of arcana from so many people killed at once. She had to lay down, curling up and hiding her head under her wing

Wisely vestia flew far away as possible..

As the planet collasped before her the female keeper ran towards the male, ignoring the screams as the built up rage exploded like a nuclear bomb she wretched his hand free to tightly grasp his. He would feel this sudden draining as if something was sucking away some of his built up power.

Heny couldnt take his full magic, she would need the Dakon dagger but she could at least take enough to drain him from causing more harm after releasing the built up he had. Her tear soak face grimance in pain as she felt his anger and rage. As the planet ariund them crumbled Corvus would engulf the 3/4 in black mist to only have them find themselves within one of his pocket realms.

Asher watched as the world shattered below them, at first too stunned by the turn of events to process what had just occurred. It wasn't until the shock waves reached Vestia, shaking her to her core, that his overtaxed mind caught up with the situation and hit him with the realization that he had just witnessed the death of billions of people, and the destruction of an entire planet.
Who had committed such a despicable crime? How had they done it? Could he have prevented it?
> UNKNOWN SYSTEM ERROR
He leaned heavily against the wall, trying to recover some amount of composure so he could attend to the others. The faces of the people he had seen that day flicked relentlessly through his mind, each one of them no longer existing, and none of them having deserved it in the slightest.
> UNKNOWN SYSTEM ERROR
He'd need a reboot once this was over, that much was clear. His hands were shaking, and that was always a sign that something had gone horribly wrong. But there was time to worry about that later. Right now, he had to focus on the others. He looked at Matt, who seemed to at least know more than he or Kay did, if not by much. "Please... please tell us what," he struggled briefly, "what happened."

Quinn tilted her head, frowning in concern as she received the message Corvis had sent. She stood and put her forepaws on the window, looking at the growing and lengthening form of rock. She blinked as she saw the tiny dot of Merith reappearing into existence and disappear behind a particularly large asteroid. "Something bad's happened with Merith and Miss Venus..." She said softly, staring at the rubble.

Shane looked at Quinn then at Starr and shook his head. "Vestia, did you see anything odd here?" He asked, wanting to know what had gone wrong. "Who was supposed to be with Syren? Where were they?"

"My camera glitch" vestia said aoftly, "So I saw nothing.."

Kay stumbled and reached out to grab someone, anyone as the psychic wave of anguish and agony hit, followed swiftly by the shockwave.

Matt steadied himself as the shockwave hit and stared out a window in shock. How CLOSE they had been to losing both their medics, Heny and Merith had still be planetside! All those people...
His face greyed, but he nodded and looked to Asher.

"We don't know... the little girl, Syren? she... " He couldn't quite stand to say it. "You have to come." Instead he lead them back to the kid's room.

Kay noticed Asher's hands shaking and reached out to pat him on the shoulder reassuringly. It would be okay, it had to be okay. Please let it be okay.

Shane looked to the nearest camera "And you don't know the answer to my other question?"

(BTW, he was asking about hallway cameras and the loop she was stuck on as well as who Merith had asked to watch Syren.)

Kay followed his brother quickly, his mind racing with questions until they got to the room where everyone was gathered somberly in the hallway. He gulped, he knew those expressions, those were the faces of grief and bad news nobody wanted to speak aloud.
The same faces his siblings had when they'd told him his mother's fate.

He rushed to Starr's side and put a hand gently on her shoulder.

Starr? Are you alright? He recognized a still figure near the dragon, he didn't want to, but he had to do his job. He moved to the little girl and checked her pulse, knowing deep in his heart there was no point.

We should take her to the medical room, we can... try to figure out... His thoughts were so muddled he was struggling to retain a psychic connection with anyone, let alone form a coherent sentence. But standing around gawping wasn't going to bring her back, at least with the medical facilities they might be able to work out a cause of death. The ship's inhabitants deserved that at least, a reason, an answer.

He picked the child up gently and moved to take her out of the room, his expression grim.

Matt joined Quinn at the window, staring out at the debris blankly. "Did they get away?" He asked flatly, unable to take his eyes off the destruction.

Quinn shook her head, still staring. She pointed at a specific asteroid. Her fur was ragged and she looked sickened from the sheer amount of dispersed arcana. "They went behind that one and just disappeared. I think they're sitting on it or something."

Starr looked up to Kay when he came to check on her. She winced and shook her head, standing to watch him take the child's body out of the room. "M-Merith would not have left her here alone while he and Heny were off ship, who was supposed to be watching over her?"

Asher wasn't entirely sure what to do. There was too much death everywhere right now, and it was interfering with his thoughts' efficiency. He went over to Starr, who looked like she had been trampled by a metaphorical herd of bison, and hesitantly put his hand on her shoulder, hoping to comfort her in a situation where there was obviously no comfort to be found.

Ellie looked from Shane, to Quinn, and back to Shane. Then she sat down next to the Quinn, trying to decide whether she'd get bitten in she tried to cuddle the fox.

The fox did nothing as Ellie sat down next to her. She was frowning so much her head hurt. Part of her grieved for this loss, but Vanessa had taught her that it did no good to grieve, that the end of life signified a birth of another somehow. She wondered what this new birth of life was then. She wondered how many n this room were hating Merith and Vanessa right now. She oddly enough couldn't bring herself to hate them. Merith and Vanessa had been the only two to explain her existence now, who and what she was. No one else had done that for her. They had given her somewhat of a purpose. That purpose had made it much easier to combat Third when he stirred from his slumber...

Third... Her eyes flashed. Third was a fox... A fox with a red and white mask... Could he have known...?

Starrnico wrote:Starr looked up to Kay  when he came to check on her. She winced and shook her head, standing to watch him take the child's body out of the room. "M-Merith would not have left her here alone while he and Heny were off ship, who was supposed to be watching over her?"

Vestia accessed her camera feeds, and found the relevant one quickly. "Sulon volunteered," she said grimly, "She seemed upset after she overheard that Heny was pregnant, too."

Kay glared up at Vestia's cameras but he had other things to do right now than worry about her gossiping.
He took the child to the medical room and laid her gently down on a bed, she looked so peaceful, he hoped she hadn't suffered.

Now he moved to what he always did to deal with grief and pesky emotions, he threw himself into his work. Every test and scan he could think of to try to figure out what had killed her.

--

Matt looked back at the group. "Sulon... " He'd had little to do with the woman, but now it looked like she had some talking to do, where had she been? she was in charge, how had this happened when she was supposed to be babysitting. He ignored the last part, truth be told he didn't really hear it.

"Then that is where we start looking for answers." Starr said, standing despite how her head hurts. She looked around then back to the camera "where is she now?"

Shane looked interested as well, waiting only for an answer before both dragons would go to find the female half keeper

"She's still here," Vestia said. She gave them directions to Sulon's location.

Asher was only half-listening. Between system errors, death, and Heny's pregnancy, he had little processing power left over for detective work.

Quinn suddenly hopped away from the ledge. She stared about, noting Syren's body was no longer there. They must have taken her to the med bay. She began walking, tiny and short enough to easily look down on when she wasn't hovering around. "I need to go to the medical room," she said flatly. "Third might have answers. He might know what happened with Syren's death... Maybe why... I don't know. But he does, I bet... He does..."

The vulpine trotted towards med bay without another word.

Kay was busy busy busy, but he looked up as the fox entered the room. He looked pale, stressed and on the verge of punching something. He was trying valiantly to hold it together, but no amount of witnessing death on the frontier could have prepared him for the death of a child.

Starr and Shane headed to find Sulon. "Sulon, what happened today?" Starr asked, flying over to the female. "Why did you leave Syren?"

Quinn looked around the room again. Suddenly she closed her eyes and strained herself. She trusted Third not to attack. Even Third was gentlemanly when it came to his victims. He had attacked Ellie because he had felt she needed a lesson, that she had not deserve luxury at the state she was. He had attacked Roanoak for... reasons, but never had he attacked out of spite. Not even when he had attacked her, all that long ago.

With a bit of strained groaning, her body suddenly relaxed. The fur on her face shifted into a pale white, as brush strokes of red appear against it. He opened his eyes. The fox's eyes were now a vivid green rather than purple. Third looked around, looked amused, "Oh? She let me out on her own?" He began to hover and float slightly, his voice a bit more masculine than the female there had been before, "How quaint~ Something odd must have happened."

Kay stared at the entity, then nodded and indicated the child. He assumed the fox was here for that, though he had no real reason to trust it. He reached for something to use as a weapon, just in case it tried to take the body or attack him.